CLASS II. 1. 3. 11. OP SENSATION. 09 



also change of air is of material consequence, and often removes 

 the cough like a charm, as mentioned in a similar situation at 

 the end of the chin-cough. 



Rubeola inirritata. Measles with inirritated fever, or with 

 weak pulse, has been spoken of by some writers. See London 

 Med. Observ. Vol. IV. Art. XI. It has also been said to have 

 been attended with sore throat. Edinb. Essays, Vol. V. Art. II. 

 Could the scarlet fever have been mistaken for the measles? or 

 might one of them have succeeded the other, as in the measles 

 and small-pox mentioned in Sect. XXXIII. 2. 9.? 



From what has been said, it is probable that inoculation might 

 disarm the measles as much as the small-pox, by preventing the 

 catarrh, and frequent pulmonary inflammation, which attends 

 this disease; both of which are probably the consequence of 

 the immediate application of the contagious miasmata to these 

 membranes. Some attempts have been made, but a difficulty 

 seems to arise in giving the disease; the blood, I conjecture, 

 would not infect, nor the tears; perhaps the mucous discharge 

 from the nostrils might succeed; or a drop of warm water put 

 on the eruptions, and scraped off* again with the edge of a lan- 

 cet; or if the branny scales were collected, and moistened with 

 a little warm water? Further experiments on this subject would 

 be worthy the public attention. 



1 1 . Scarlatina mills. The scarlet fever exists with all degrees 

 of virulence, from a flea-bite to the plague. The infectious 

 material of this disease, like that of the small-pox, I suppose to 

 be diffused, not dissolved, in the air; on which account I sus- 

 pect that it requires a much nearer approach to the sick for a 

 well person to receive the infection, than in the measles; the 

 contagion of which I believe to be more volatile, or diffusible, 

 in the atmosphere. But as the contagious miasmata of small- 

 pox and scarlet fever are supposed to be more fixed, they may 

 remain for a longer time in clothes or furniture; as a thread dip- 

 ped in variolous matter has given the disease by inoculation after 

 having been exposed many days to the air, and after having been 

 kept many months in a phial. This also accounts for the slow or 

 sporadic progress of the scarlet fever, as it infects others at but 

 a very small distance from the sick; and does not produce a 

 quantity of pus-like matter, like the small-pox, which can ad- 

 here to the clothes of the attendants, and when dried is liable to 

 be shaken off in the form of powder, and thus propagate the 

 infection. 



This contagious powder of the small-pox, and of the scarlet 

 fever, becomes mixed with saliva in the mouth, and is thus car- 

 ried to the tonsils, the mucus of which arrests some particles of 



VOL ir. F P 



